River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-11-17

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! sally observed is
/ the CHEEKY one which comes with No
vember chilliness. On Thanksgiving
+ every sect brings its thanks to common
/ altar. and even the vast body of men
/ and women who are identified with no
/ religious body feel their hearts moved
at the approach of the feast. and send up
their praises to Him who is not alone
the God Of sects, but the gracious and
merciful Father of ali. Thanksgiving
/ Day. for a couple of centuries was,
one may say, almost local festival.
+ being confined to the New England
+ States Since 1862. however it has
been a legal and National holiday, and
its observance is widespread, and al
most universal in this country. 1t was
I appointed to be National holiday
a day of praise and petition-at a
time when, as a Nation, we were pass
ing through the yicissitudes of war. yet
had reason to hope that the Nation
would be saved
President Lincoln, with the intense
reverence for Divine goodness which
showed itself so plainly in his life.
proclaimed for two consecutive years,
So and 81, general thanksgiving, and
since then succeeding Presidents have
made the custom permanent one.
To go into the history Of Thanksgiv-
ing. carries one back into the medi-
@val ages, if not farther; indeed the
era is very remote VIXEN there is not
chronicled records of special feasts and
fasts, at which tines the various ma
tions gave thanks for nercies received
or disasters escaped. Some time it
was for success in battle, again for de-
liverance from flood, famine or pestil-
ence, and while many IF those nations
of the dark ages marked iair existence
by bloodshed only, it will 80 found
that they were rs punctiiOus il the
observance of their religious rites as The
Christianized people of our own
century. Among the feasts of the He
brews is mentioned one which is prob
ably the most ancient and original
Thanksgiving. 1t is the Feast of Tab
ernacles or the ''ingashering at the
end OF the year" This proper celebra-
ton of prolific harvest. inspired later
the festival known as Harvest Home,
observed by various countries, and this
in turn presently suggested the suita-
bility of a day of thanks after the
Harvest.
We who celebrate this Thanksgiving
Day secure in our religious faith, pro-
tected by a powerful Government, cit-
liens of prosperous commonwealth.
surrounded by luxuries of mind. body
and estate, can not realize the intense
meaning of the primitive Thanksgiving
celebrated two and half centuries ago
On the wild New England shore"
The Pilgrim band at Plymouth had Just
garnered its first harvest in the autumn
of 1921. They had been but a year in
this country. OF that famous landing
the narrative is old. How the COM
pany of one hundred men, women and
children, landed first at Cape Cod;
how, before they left the Msy1ower
they bound themselves together by
written compact; how they found
''walnuts, Strawberries and vines and
and basket holding several bushels of
Indian corn, yellow, red and blue,
such rs still grows on Cape Cod!n How
the Mayflower. weather-woUn lfter
her long journey, stood in the harbor
until the colonists should decide upon
a permanent location, the captain
grumbling at the delay and bidding
them to hurry that he might start back
to Holland. How finally the party
consisting Of Carver, Standish. Brad
ford and others. selected Plymouth
rock and the Mayflower with its load
Of women and children came into that
harbor five days later, being the pod of
December new style. There they
spent a bleak winter, lily housed. poor
IL clothed and fed Half of them died
from scurvy and other diseases and at
times there were only a dozen who
were well enough to wait upon the sick.
According 10 the diary of Governor
Bradford, ''they fetched them wood,
made them fires, dressed their meat.
made their beds, washed their loath-
some clothes. dressed and undressed
them, two of the most vigilant nurses
being Elder Brewster and Captain
Miles Standish. After weathering this
winter, they hopefully welcomed the
spring and put in such crops as the
soil and their opportunities would
permit. In the aut Imn came their
first harvest and with hearts chastened
BY miseries, yet undismayed and
full Of gratitude. they celebrated the
first American Thanksgiving Day. 1t
ia not probable that the well-Clad.
wellfed worshippers who kneel dO-day
IN costly churches feel q 1.-THE Of the
overwhelming gratefulhess which
pervaded that small, feeble colony.
offering up thanks for dangers
passed. and present mercies. II was
Governor Bradford who gave TO this |
day its significance Of good cheer for
the old record relates that he sent !
four men out fowling ''that they 4
might after a mere special manner re-
ioice together" Ia looking over the
portraits Of those digniiied and be-
frilled gentlemen who gave THEN
character to the first colonies. they do
not impress one as being indifferent to
yastronomic pleasures. The Endi-
eotts and winthrops and even old Cot
Jon Mather himself. while their faces
Indicate plainly their aglstere morality.
have a well-kept and well-fcd appear
.nca and mnst of Them Anafnmies Of